I have decided to give up smoking tobacco completely, but will do it in two stages. First I will resolve to smoke only one cigarette per day. Once this becomes easy to deal with, I will contemplate when to take the next step: complete and (hopefully) permanent abandonment of this habit, which honestly I had always intended I would give up one day in any case.

I'm doing this not merely for myself, but also for those dear to me, especially those who love and/or rely on me (such as my children, for example). It begins today. If there are challenges along the way, so be it. I have now finally decided, it is time.

Thanks for reading this. I will use this topic as needed, I don't know how often, it depends on how challenging I find this undertaking. But I will use this topic as a virtual journal of recovery from this unhealthy acquired habit.

manas

Last edited by manas on Sun Sep 08, 2013 8:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Hi, Manas,I gave up - years ago - by rationing myself and gradually reducing the ration from 20 per day down to (I think) 5 and switching to a low-tar variety. I didn't push myself too hard and it took months but by that time I had broken the physical addiction and all of the habits (e.g. 'always' having a cigarette with a cup of coffee, or 'always' smoking in the pub). It was easy, after that, to give up the last few per day. I'm still the only person I know to have done it that way but it worked for me I hope your similar programme works for you.

Kim wrote:Hi, Manas,I gave up - years ago - by rationing myself and gradually reducing the ration from 20 per day down to (I think) 5 and switching to a low-tar variety. I didn't push myself too hard and it took months but by that time I had broken the physical addiction and all of the habits (e.g. 'always' having a cigarette with a cup of coffee, or 'always' smoking in the pub). It was easy, after that, to give up the last few per day.I'm still the only person I know to have done it that way but it worked for me I hope your similar programme works for you.

Kim

Thanks Kim for the encouragement. Fortunately the habit only ended up being between about 3 or 4 a day for me, so (I hope) the process of first cutting back shouldn't be too painful. But previous experience tells me that, with any resolve there are some challenges, it is not going to be 'plain sailing'...because there is this mind that kinda likes it, you know what I mean? And of course there is also another, wiser mind that says "this is bad for you, not worth whatever dubious 'pleasure' it seems to give, and you ought to abandon it utterly". On that note I want to ask if (eventually) that first mind I mentioned, that 'gets off' on it so to speak, no longer arises anymore, ie, from those who gave up completely I wish to inquire: do you ever miss it? (Please be completely honest here!)

Sorry to bore you all, but I just had my first challenge...I really feel like having a smoke but I've already used a third of my daily one cigarette ration, so I'm saving it for later, in case I get stressed while looking after the kids...it can happen, if someone yells at me etc I will probably need to go sit outside and have a smoke...so I have to save the remainder for later.

This is it, I'm not backing down this time! I will abandon tobacco smoking! Step One is underway.

"If beings knew, as I know, the results of giving & sharing, they would not eat without having given, nor would the stain of miserliness overcome their minds. Even if it were their last bite, their last mouthful, they would not eat without having shared." Iti 26

Hi Manas,Should you fail, and I hope you don't, I would be more than happy to discuss with you the three-month nicotine patch program I went on over ten years ago.All the very best!kind regards,

Ben

“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.” - Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:in mountain clefts and chasms,loud gush the streamlets,but great rivers flow silently.- Sutta Nipata 3.725

Thanks Coyote, and Ben I will see how I go...hope I can manage without any pharmaceutical intervention, but if that was what it took, yes I can see that it would be worth it.

I was wondering if ex-smokers who have not smoked again for, say, a few months to a year, can tell me in full honesty: do you ever still miss it? Or does the desire to do it actually vanish over time? It would encourage me to know...

manas wrote:I was wondering if ex-smokers who have not smoked again for, say, a few months to a year, can tell me in full honesty: do you ever still miss it? Or does the desire to do it actually vanish over time? It would encourage me to know...

I haven't had a cigarette since 2002. I haven't missed it at all - not even once.kind regards,

Ben

“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.” - Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:in mountain clefts and chasms,loud gush the streamlets,but great rivers flow silently.- Sutta Nipata 3.725

As in many things we are all different in what works for us in this area.Like many of my generation I smoked. Finally gave it up about 25 years ago.I tried a number of times cutting down.It always crept up again. In the end cold turkey was the only way that worked..for me.After a few months I did not miss it. Then like many ex-smokers I became completely averse to the smell and everything to do with it !

When I gave up smoking, I briefly cut down to 3 cigarettes a day (morning, lunchtime, evening), then I substituted sugar-free chewing gum for the cigs for a short while, and then gave up that as well.

I've never had any cravings over a period of several years - and my throat and chest feel much better than they used to. The smell of cigarette smoke seems quite strange and rather unpleasant to me now.

Good luck !

With kind wishes,

Aloka

Last edited by Aloka on Tue Sep 03, 2013 8:51 am, edited 1 time in total.

I smoked from 2007 through some of 2013. Just under six years, the last year of which I made a run at quitting about ten times. I even quit for a month or so before going back, only to quit again finally a little later.

My approach was to ride out the three days of physical nicotine withdrawal, and then recognize that all further craving for nicotine was a mental habit looking for expression. This became the key, to wit shifting my habitual routines to no longer make room for cigarette breaks.

One model which helped me was this: fundamentally, nicotine is a virus. It makes the human want it, the human makes it and consumes it at great individual detriment, and the weed benefits genetically by having the human host as a caretaker. It's a rotten little weed-virus, it's as bad as Invasion of the Body Snatchers. It's like a little flu. And so the thinking went.

The three days of nicotine withdrawal were easy enough to endure because the timeline was so short. I used a three-day weekend from work to hang out at home and practiced enduring the asava of physical distress while remembering that this effort was fundamentally sustained by harmlessness.

Truly, the difficult part was not the physical withdrawal. Individual cases differ, surely, but I am suspicious of approaches which focus on the physical dosing reduction without addressing the overriding place of nicotine in ones dispositional environment. Contemplation of reduction timetables just lets the mind focus more on smoking as an activity; it's still playing with those marbles, as it were...

"And how is it, bhikkhus, that by protecting oneself one protects others? By the pursuit, development, and cultivation of the four establishments of mindfulness. It is in such a way that by protecting oneself one protects others.

"And how is it, bhikkhus, that by protecting others one protects oneself? By patience, harmlessness, goodwill, and sympathy. It is in such a way that by protecting others one protects oneself.- Sedaka Sutta [SN 47.19]

I know you are trying hard some time for quit smoking. I really appreciate your effort. I used to smoke and stopped about 25years ago. It is not gradual. One day I decided not to smoke as it affected my health. So I just stopped.

The same way I stopped drinking 10 months ago. I just stopped.I know everybody can’t do what I did.I think the best thing is to cut the puppies tail at once rather than bit at a time. it is less painful.

I quit smoking 4 moths ago. I've been smoking since I was 14. I had tried to quit many times before, until I started doing meditation, Anapansati, 4 months ago. My intention during that time was just to understand the path of Buddha. I didn't try to quit smoking at that time. I tried to notice my breath during the day and tried to get rid of the thoughts that came into my mind. I meditated about 20 minutes a daybefore I went to bed for 5 days, without smoking during the day. On the 6th day, I tried to smoke but my body just refused to take it. I tried so many times cause I wanted to smoke but I ended up coughing.So I decided to quit after that, and do anapanasati everyday until now.

Thanks everyone, sorry if I've not replied to all. I'm busy, cleaning, packing. Starting a new chapter in my life. I've decided to try living with a friend I made recently, we will share a much bigger house than either of us can currently afford, by pooling our resources.

Once I decide to do something, and it is really in my heart to achieve it, I will do it. I just smoked the last of my packet of smokes. I did not follow the one a day thing very well, I just decided instead to just finish off the packet over the course of the week, then go cold turkey. It's all or nothing, moderation with this thing was not working. I'm already feeling a bit emotional but I'm not turning back now.

I might need some encouragement if things get tough. But if human life is so precious as the Teacher tells us, then it's worth seeing this through. I guess that's it then. I almost feel like crying, cos I have not had the usual amount I would have had so far today, there wasn't a whole one even left. It's all gone now.

Joyfully I start the process of detoxification. Luckily for me, I have lots of herbal teas, I can juice barley grass, etc. I will help my body through this process. I know what detoxing from things feels like. It is not easy, but there is also something liberating about catharsis, cleansing out crap is a good thing. The bad feelings that will come, won't last forever, they will be temporary.

A whole lot of things are happening all at once for me. Much change. It feels right to give up totally right now.

Is this normal? I am feeling so very sad...it's DAY ONE of my total abandonment of tobacco, and normally by this time of the day, I would have had about half of a cig. I'm not turning back, but I want to know if this awful sense of sadness and loss is normal.

For about three days after quitting, ones physiological states are going to be a little wild, and mileage varies.

You may be sad, of course, for valid reasons or for the reason of quitting, but I think at least some of the intensity is likely a simple and brutish consequence of withdrawal. Endure that physical asava and strive to not get struck by the second dart!

"And how is it, bhikkhus, that by protecting oneself one protects others? By the pursuit, development, and cultivation of the four establishments of mindfulness. It is in such a way that by protecting oneself one protects others.

"And how is it, bhikkhus, that by protecting others one protects oneself? By patience, harmlessness, goodwill, and sympathy. It is in such a way that by protecting others one protects oneself.- Sedaka Sutta [SN 47.19]

daverupa wrote:For about three days after quitting, ones physiological states are going to be a little wild, and mileage varies.

You may be sad, of course, for valid reasons or for the reason of quitting, but I think at least some of the intensity is likely a simple and brutish consequence of withdrawal. Endure that physical asava and strive to not get struck by the second dart!

I feel great sadness, but I don't want that poison back in my body. I'm going to see this through. Tears or not.

daverupa wrote:For about three days after quitting, ones physiological states are going to be a little wild, and mileage varies.

You may be sad, of course, for valid reasons or for the reason of quitting, but I think at least some of the intensity is likely a simple and brutish consequence of withdrawal. Endure that physical asava and strive to not get struck by the second dart!

I feel great sadness, but I don't want that poison back in my body. I'm going to see this through. Tears or not.

thanks dave

When I did finally quit after cutting down (as I described before), there was no real physical withdrawal. You shouldn't be experiencing one, either.And there wasn't much of a habit to break, either, and shouldn't be for you.However, I did experience a surprisingly strong psychological reaction which I eventually pinned down as being (don't laugh - I am totally serious) a loss of identity. Yep. For ten or fifteen years my identity, my self-description, had included the term "smoker". Now it didn't. I wasn't the same person any more!Simple, isn't it - but, as I said, surprisingly strong. Maybe it's your problem, too?